The Christ Hospital – University of Cincinnati Family Medicine Residency AFMRD Clinic First Collaborative

 

While we have always had a very strong residency, our inpatient experience has always been exceptional and our outpatient experience has always been the “left overs”. Over the last few years, we have made great strides, moving our Family Medicine Center onto our hospital campus, instead of a half hour drive from our hospital, and then expanding our Center to include more patient rooms, more staff, and an improved waiting room. But we still craved more innovation and improved experiences for our residents, our staff and our patients. When we heard about the Clinic First Initiative, we knew it was a great way to continue to improve our outpatient experience!

Once our team arrived at the conference in Kansas City last February the experience began, continued and ended with an incredible energy. The collective passion in the conference room excited our group and provided the much needed impetus for new ideas and brainstorming that then predominated the rest of our time together in Kansas City. At the end of the first day we continued the conversation about radical clinic first culture change as we headed out for BBQ and then again on our ride back to the hotel. We walked the neighborhoods surrounding the conference one cool evening for several hours discussing our clinic, the family of people who make it what it is and how some of these new ideas could change our way of thinking and our outcomes.

This energy continued on even to the airport. We broke out the post-it note pads and began writing out every rotation our curriculum currently includes and began brainstorming ways to bring the clinic to the forefront through schedule changes. We eagerly brought these ideas home to our program and our clinic site, following up with dinners and meetings and informal conversations that kept this new energy alive.

Now as we continue to meet monthly as the newly formed Clinic First Steering committee we are working to role out change. Some big and others smaller, considering what our vision is for the program we all care so much about and how best to bring together our already stellar learning opportunities with a model that prioritizing learning in a highly functioning clinic. We have two unique obstacles facing us in this transformation: our focus on global health and yearly international trips and our Family Medicine Psychiatry program, which is integrated into our residency. This has not slowed us down and in fact has uncovered some unique advantages for our FMP residents; the energy that ignited us all in Kansas City we think has spread through our program and across the country. It’s an exciting new wave for primary care and we are eager to be a part of it!  

 

 

 

 

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